' The Cause and Effect of the A m eric an Revolution, 
and the Example of Washington. ' ' 

P ^ ... 

ORATION 



OF 



Hon. THOS, L, JONES, 



BEFOBfJ THE 



Excelsior Society 



OF 



Eminence College, 

KENTUCKY, 

On 22d February, 1882. 



CINCINNATI : 

WRIGHTSON & CO., PUBLISHERS. 

1885. 



"The Cause and Effect of the American Revolution, 
and the Example of Washington. 



ORATION 



Hon, THOS, L, JONES. 



BEFORE THE 



Excelsior -Society 

OF 

Eminence College, 

KENTUCKY, 

On 22d February, 1882. 



CINCINNATI : 

WRIGHTSON & CO., PUBLISHERS. 

i88q. 






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ORATION. 



Mr. President and Members of the Excelsior Society — 
Ladies and Gentlemen : — If any day in the calendar of 
time, save that which gave a Savior to the world is worthy of 
celebration, it is this. If any epoch in history should be 
enshrined in the hearts of the people of all climes, and 
especially our own, for all time to come, it is that which was 
introduced b)^ the birthday of him whom we designate "The 
Father of his Country." In its most prominent events, 
guided and influenced by that great name, there has dawned 
upon mankind a light more beneficent than any since the race 
began. Among the multiplicity of subjects that might be 
selected for an address on this occasion, perhaps none would 
be more appropriate than "The cause and effect of the 
American Revolution and the example of Washington." 
This forms a subject of the largest scope and significance. 
It has engaged the greatest minds — is, indeed, inexhaustible, 
almost incomprehensible, and it is no easy task, in the time 
allotted for these exercises, to present the merest outline of 
the all-embracing theme. 

Euripides has said, "when the theme is great it is easy 
to excel." In contemplation of our theme, to-day, we might 
justly assume that it is most difficult to excel. 

It is an admitted proposition that nothing valuable and 
permanent has been ever achieved except by great effort, 
either intellectual or by force of arms, or both, and in respect 
to governments among mankind they have been almost uni- 



• 



versally established as the result of war — great conflicts of 
arms, great battles, great wars. Indeed we may almost con-, 
elude that war has. been the natural state of man. Edmund 
Burke said that man had shed more blood of his fellow-man 
in one year than all the brute creation had shed ot their dif- 
ferent species since the world began. Since the days of Cain 
and Abel, and the battle of the kings in the vale of Siddim, 
all through old Biblical history, and the profane, since Achil- 
les and Hector fought, and /Eneas fled from Troy, seldom or 
ever has a government been overthrown or one established, 
a nation destroyed or one built up, or a great principle 
evolved and interwoven in a civil polity except by force of 
arms. 

The wars of ancient times, and indeed of modern times, 
except in our own country, have been chiefly for maintain- 
ing the power of one monarch, emperor, king or royal dynas- 
ty over another, or for dominion and empire alone. We look 
in vain in the history of nations through the catalogue of 
wars to find a determined and persistent effort to establish a 
constitutional government, wholly elective in its character, 
with limited powers granted by the people and all others 
reserved to them for the maintenance of popular liberty. 
The American Revolution forms a most notable and grand 
exception. It is the light of the world, and the blazing 
monitor to future ages. 

Historians in viewing the pathway of power among the na- 
tions, the march of government and civilization, have divided 
time since Athens became a power two thousand five hun- 
dred years ago into great eras of mankind, those eras decided 
and inaugurated by great wars, and more particularly by 
great and signal battles. In coming to the consideration of 
our immediate subject it may not be uninteresting to recur 
to some of these great events, these landmarks in the march 
of empire, that we may properly appreciate its bearing and 
importance. 



Marathon, 459 B. C. 

On the plains of Marathon was fought the first great battle 
of antiquity between the Greeks and Persians. The Greeks 
were the first of the nations inhabiting the northern shores 
of the Mediterranean to receive from the East the rudiments 
of art and literature and the germs of social and political or- 
ganization. From their geographical locality they formed 
the natural vanguard of European liberty against Persian 
ambition. They rejected the idolatry, and discarded the 
loathsome superstition of the Nile, the Orontes and the Gan- 
ges. Darius, the Persian King, ruled with despotic power 
over the northern Indians, the Assyrians, the Syrians, the 
Babylonians, the Chaldees, the Phoenecians, Armenians, the 
Bactrians, Lydians, Phrygians, 'Parthians, and Medes. All 
obeyed the scepter of the great monarch from the Indus to 
the Peneus. The Greeks had dreams of popular freedom 
and Republican Institutions, and they had established and 
experienced from time to time the incipient principles of 
representative liberty. No sacerdotal caste ever existed 
among them. They had had kings it is true, but they ruled 
with certain prerogatives. They at least loved freedom of 
thought and speech, and wished to enjoy their own autono- 
my and their own beautiful mythology as a benign inherit- 
ance. Datis, the General of King Darius, commanded one 
hundred thousand Persians. The Greeks, who were only 
ten thousand in number, were led by the great Miltiades, 
in whose veins, it was said, ran the blood of Achilles. The- 
mistocles and Aristides also were there. The Greeks tri- 
umphed, and drove, in dismay, the Persian hosts from the 
shores of Attica. The day of Marathon was the decisive 
crisis in the history of the two nations. It dispelled forever 
the illusion of Persian invincibility, which had fettered men's 
minds for ages, and secured for mankind the intellectual 
treasures of Athens, the rise of free institutions, the liberal 
enlightenment of the Western World, and the ascendency, 
for many ages, of the great principles of European civili- 
zation. 



6 

Syracuse, 413 B. C. 

Athens, which at this time had become the embodiment 
of Greek power and glory, was ambitious of extending her 
dominion. She hoped to secure all Sicily by the capture of 
Syracuse. At Marathon we beheld her contending for self- 
preservation against despotism and the invading armies of 
the East, but now, in the arrogance of her renown after fifty 
years of comparative peace, we see her herself an invader in 
the West, attempting to force her government and laws upon 
an unwilling people. She had become the chief of a thou- 
sand cities. She had the most powerful fleet that had yet 
appeared on the seas. She had produced a Pericles to plan 
and a Phideas to execute. She was the first and great Repub- 
lic of the world, and believed that her advancing power and 
glory could not be dimmed or checked. But the great bat- 
tle of Syracuse put a stop to her advance. The destruction 
of the Athenian fleet, under Nicias, in the harbor of the 
rock-ribbed city of Syracuse, prevented the exercise of 
Greek rule in the West as it was in the East. Syracuse, 
indeed, seemed a breastwork, grown out of the sea, to beat 
back the tide of Grecian power, and to protect the rising 
but undeveloped strength of the City of the Seven Hills. 
But for this battle Greece, and not Rome, might have con- 
quered Carthage, and the Greek language, instead of the 
Latin, might have been the principal element in the language 
of France, Spain and Italy. It forms an epoch in the strife 
of universal empire in which the great states of antiquity 
successively engaged. Corinth, Thebes, and every enemy 
of Athens gave aid to the Syracusans, and thus the power of 
Athens was broken, and the empire of Western Europe was 
left for Rome and Carthage to contend for in the years to 
come. 

x^RBELA, 331 B. C. 

The Persian monarchy was still dominant in the East, and 
its subjects still locked in the embrace of ignorance, idolatry 
and despotism. Philip, of Macedon, had lived, and his son 



Alexander was now carrying the sword of his power over the 
earth. This great king and unrivaled ruler of men, met the 
Persian host under Darius the Third, on the field of Arbela, 
where he overthrew the Oriental dynasty, broke the deadly 
monotony of the Eastern World, and carried the Grecian 
language and civilization from the shores of the yEgean to 
the banks of the Indus, and from the Caspian Sea to the 
cataracts of the Nile. The shadow of Greece now was car- 
ried eastward, even dark and sullen Elgypt was forced to 
acknowledge her supremacy, and the language of Pericles 
and Plato became the tongues of the statesmen and sages 
who inhabited the mysterious land of the Pyramids and the 
Sphinx. It became the sole language of all literature and 
science for a thousand years. On the field of Arbela the 
great Persian power that had existed for so many centuries, 
and threatened to overcome the whole earth, was again 
broken, and finally crushed. The mighty Macedonian dies 
in a debauch at Babylon, his empire is divided among his 
generals, assuming the title of kings, and yet nothing is 
achieved for the inherent rights and liberties of man. 

Metaurus, 207 B. C. 

The race for empire between Rome and Carthage, which 
now absorbed the attention of the civilized world, had long 
been going on. Hannibal had warred seventeen years against 
Rome, had won the great battle of Cannae, and was now, as 
it were, besieging the city. Hasdrubal, his brother, and the 
Roman Scipio had been fighting in Spain — when suddenly 
Hasdrubal abandoned Spain, escaped over the Pyrenees 
through Gaul, and, descending from the Alps, planted his 
army on the Metauro, hoping to make a junction with Han- 
nibal, and, by a united assault, to take Rome. But a Roman 
army, gotten up with great dispatch, and without a suspicion 
on the part of Hannibal, under the Consuls Claudius Nero 
and Marcus Lucius, marched to the Metauro, took Hasdru- 
bal by surprise, overthrew his army, slew him in battle, and 
two days after, his head was thrown into the camp of Hanni- 



bal, a bloody and sightless trophy of Roman power. Han- 
nibal exclaimed: "Rome would now become the mistress ot 
the world!" He soon fled to the shores of Carthage, and 
Rome began her sway, the imperial pride and glory of the 
earth. 

Arminius, 9 A. D. 

The next great battle which marked an era in the human 
race was that of Arminius over the Roman legions, under 
Varus. Rome was now indeed the wonder of the world, and 
her empire was almost universal among the more civilized 
races of mankind. The great Pompey had fought his last 
battle on the plains of Pharsalia, and as a fugitive had been 
slain on the Egyptian shore. The age of the mighty Julius 
Caesar, who had fought and conquered and reigned and fallen 
at the base of Pompey's statue, had passed. Anthony had 
died in the arms of Cleopatra, and Augustus reigned in im- 
perial splendor over land and sea; his armies incumbered the 
earth and his fleets emblazoned the seas. For more exten- 
sive and complete dominion he sent one of his numerous 
armies, under Varus, to overcome Germany, and extend his 
language and laws over the barbarous nations, as they were 
termed, in middle and northern Europe. But the great gen- 
eral, Arminius, a Cheruscan of the high Germanic race, met 
his legions between the Lippe and the Ems, put them to 
route, and thus saved our Germanic-Saxon ancestors from 
enslavement in their original seats along the Eyder and the 
Elbe; and, as is believed by a distinguished historian, but for 
the decisive battle of Arminius, the Island of England would 
never have borne that name, and the English nation, whose 
race and language are now overrunning the earth, would 
probably have been cut off from existence. 

Chalons, 451 A. D. 

Rome had pursued her various fortunes for more than four 
centuries. Emperor after emperor had reigned. The age 
of Trajan and the era of the Antonines had passed. She 



9 

had been convulsed by civil wars; her empire had been di- 
vided, united and redivided; she had been invaded by the 
Goth, and the Vandal, and Alaric had taken the city, and 
now she was threatened by the Huns, who essayed to establish 
a new anti-Christian dynasty upon the wreck of her temporal 
power. The pressure of the Huns began to be felt in Europe 
about the first of the fourth century. They had long been 
formidable to China, but they were finally driven westward 
and began to descend, tribe after tribe, and wave after wave 
of savage warriors, upon the borders of civilized Europe. 
Attila, who was called the scourge of God, had become their 
leader and king. He ruled over the eastern territory of the 
Danube and the Black Sea, eastward of the Caucasus. He 
had invaded and overrun alniKDst half of Europe and now 
contemplated the capture of Rome. The confederate ar- 
mies of Romans and Visogoths, under Aetius and King 
Theodoric, met him in battle array on the plains of Chalons, 
defeated him and drove him back to his northern hive, and 
thus saved Rome from barbarian invasion and ruin, and pre- 
served her civil institutions and her Christian religion for all 
time to come. 

Tours, 732 A. D. 

The battle of Tours, in one sense, was the most impor- 
tant of the world. Mahomet had lived and died, and on the 
result of this battle depended the supremacy of Christianity 
over Mahometanism. The Mahometans had taken up arms 
to promote their religion. They ruled from the Tigris to the 
Oxus; and, after several years of active and increasing war, 
had conquered Syria and Egypt, and had won their way 
along the coast of Africa, as far as the pillars of Hercules; 
had passed over into Spain and were invoking the name of 
Mahomet under the Pyrenees. Charles Martel, the son of 
Pepin Heristal, duke of the Austrian Franks, led the Frank- 
ish hosts against the countless multitude of Syrians, Moors, 
Saracens, Persians and Tartars under Abderrahman, defeated 
them, and saved our ancestors of Britain and all Gaul from 



10 

the civil and religious yoke of the Koran. This was the 
great battle between the champions of the Crescent and the 
Cross, Charles Martel opened the way for Charlemagne, 
the great regenerator of Western Europe, after the fall of 
the Roman Empire, and for King Alfred, the founder of the 
English Monarchy. 

Hastings, 1066 A. D. 

The battle of Hastings, which comes nearer to the Amer- 
ican people, in its political and civil effect, than any yet men- 
tioned, as deciding to whom we are most indebted, the Saxon 
or the Norman, for some of the chief ingredients in our fabric 
of government, may be considered of doubtful estimation. 
Whether William the Conqueror, or Harold the Saxon King, 
should be uppermost in our veneration is yet an undecided 
question. Certainly the English Monarchy was made, and 
consists of the better parts of both elements of character, 
the Saxon and the Norman — the Saxon, the more sturdy; 
the Norman, the more gallant. The Normans, from their 
brilliant qualities, were considered the Paladins of the world. 
It is, however, a general conclusion that England owes her 
liberties to her having been conquered by the Normans; for, 
although the Saxon institutions were the primitive cradle of 
English liberty, but of their own intrinsic force they could 
never have founded the enduring English Constitution. 

Orleans, 1429 A. D. 

The battle of Orleans may be mentioned as a signal one 
in history, perhaps chiefly from the fact that it was won 
under the inspiration and guidance of a young woman. The 
English in the race for supremacy were then masters of all 
France north of the Loire, and were about to overrun the 
Southern provinces which yet adhered to the cause of the 
Dauphin. The city of Orleans was the last stronghold of 
the French national party. The young Joan of Arc, who 
believed herself inspired of God, and led by heavenly voices, 
thought that she only could save France. She appeared 



11 

among the soldiery clad in the panoply of war as a figure 
from heaven, an avenging angel to drive the invaders from the 
soil of her country. Her fame spread far and wide, and her 
banner was the assuring signal of victory. It was under her 
guidance as she had promised Charles, that in three months 
the siege of Orleans was raised, and in three more she stood 
with her victorious ensign by the high altar at Rheims, while 
he was anointed and crowned Charles the Seventh of France. 
This was not the conclusive but the decisive battle in that 
war between the French and the English, and Joan of Arc 
has ever been considered one of the truest heroines the world 
has ever seen. 

The Spanish Ai^mada, 1588 A. D. 

In the latter part of the sixteenth century, Philip the 
Second of Spain, was absolute master of an empire superior 
to all other states. Since the fall of the Roman Empire no 
such preponderating power had existed in the world. He 
had large standing armies and the greatest fleet that ploughed 
the seas. Besides the Spanish crown, he held that of Naples 
and Sicily, the Duchy of Milan, Franche-Comte and the 
Netherlands ; in Africa he possessed Tunis, Oran, the Cape 
Verd and the Canary Islands. Beyond the Atlantic he was 
lord of the most splendid portions of the New World, the 
Empires of Peru, Mexico, New Spain and Chili, with their 
mines and precious metals— Hispanola and Cuba with their 
rich products of soil. He conceived himself the redoubted 
Champion to extirpate heresy and re-establish the Papal 
power throughout Europe. The doctrines of the reforma- 
tion had been rooted out in Italy and Spain. Belgium had 
become from a Protestant to a Catholic Country. Half Ger- 
many had been won back to the old faith, and now Philip 
turned his eye upon England and the power of the Protes- 
tant Queen, Elizabeth. The destruction of this monstrous 
heretic, Philip thought was an imperative duty. The great 
Duke of Guise, more powerful than the King of France him- 
self, was Philip's ally. The Prince of Parma was chief of the 



12 

great expedition. Elizabeth had Effingham, Drake and 
Raleigh, Oxford, Cumberland and* Sheffield to defend her 
Kingdom by sea and by land. All Europe looked on with 
dread apprehension. The contest came and the proud King, 
his fleets, and his armies were beaten back and destroyed. 
England and Protestanisrn were saved, and the great old 
Queen lived out the splendid age of English history. 

Blenheim, 1704 A. D. 

In the beginning of the eighteenth century, Louis the 
Fourteenth of France, called the Grand Monarch, had had 
forty years of success, and had enjoyed one of the most 
brilliant reigns in all history ; but despotism was its chief 
characteristic. Spain had threatened the liberties of Europe 
in the end of the sixteenth century. France had almost 
overthrown them about the close of the seventeenth, and the 
prospect of making headway against them both under such 
a powerful Monarch as Louis the Fourteenth was anything 
but hopeful. Here in the battle of Blenheim again met the 
Catholic and the Protestant — England and Germany and 
Holland and other States formed the Grand Alliance, and 
the great English Duke of Marlborough was placed at the 
head of the allied armies. The allies conquered, and again 
Blenheim built up the Protestant faith, drove the haughty 
Louis to his home on the Seine, and dissipated forever his 
proud visions of universal conquest. 

PuLTOWA, 1709 A. D. 

The battle of Pultowa introduced to mankind a great 
Dynasty suddenly grown up among the peoples of northern 
Europe and north-western Asia, hitherto but little known or 
thought of. Russia had played no part in the affairs of na- 
tions. Charles the Fifth and Elizabeth, and Philip of Spain 
— the Guises, Sully, Richelieu, Cromwell, and William of 
Orange thought no more about the Muscovite Czar, than 
we think of the power of King Kalakaua. But Peter the 



13 

Great had appeared upon the stage, and was displaying strik- 
ing quahties in cabinet and field. 

Charles the Twelfth of Sweden, was a powerful Monarch 
and a renowned warrior. He belonged to the Germanic 
race. The Russians were Sclavonic people, and the origin 
of the invasion of Russia by Charles was through jealousy of 
race as well as, perhaps, more than, for political power. He 
determined to overthrow the rising genius of the Sclavonic 
race, and risked his enterprise on the plains of Pultowa. 

The great Peter triumphed, and began his grand career. 

" Dread Pultowa's day, 
When fortune left the royal Swede, 

Around a slaughtered army lay. 
No more to combat and to bleed. 

The power and fortune of the war 
Had passed to the triumphant Czar." 

Napoleon said at St. Helena, that all Europe would soon 
either be Cossack or Republican. The prophecy is not yet 
fulfilled, and may never be, but certain it is that Russia 
stands to-day the greatest Imperial power of Europe, or the 
world; its majestic arm reaching with absolute despotism 
from the Arctic to the Mediterranean, and eastward beyond 
the steppes of Asia to the shores of the Pacific. 

Valmy, 1792 A. D. 

Near the close of the eighteenth century, after long, mul- 
tiplied and untold sufferings of the people in State and 
Church, and through all the ramifications of government, 
France caught from the light which had arisen in the western 
world, gleams of freedom and Republicanism. Democracy 
had taken hold upon the hearts of the people ; brilliant spir- 
its had arisen, determined to throw off the shackles of des- 
potism, to put behind them the very shadow of imperialism 
and plant the symbols of liberty. They advance in rapid 
strides, they raise armies and declare war against the great 
powers of Europe then leagued together to crush out their 
bold designs. The allied armies of Prussia and Austria, 
commanded by the Duke of Brunswick and the French 



14 

noblesse, or high-born youths of France, under Conde, 
marched with confidence upon defenceless Paris. But the 
peoples' armies, under the dauntless Dumouriez and the dash- 
ing Kellerman, encountered them on the border, broke their 
bands, and drove them from the soil of France. On the 
very day the battle of Valmy was fought and won by the 
champions of the people, France assumed the title of Re- 
public, and "from the cannonade of Valmy may be dated 
the commencement of that career of victory which carried 
her armies to Vienna and the Kremlin." To that battle the 
Democratic spirit which proclaimed the Republic of 1848, 
as well as that of 1792, owed its origin. There was the birth 
of the military Republic of France, before whose conquering 
march the kings of Europe trembled for long years to come ; 
and although it rose in splendor and fell in dishonor, yet even 
at this day the government of President Grevy, called a Re- 
public, may, although through a pathway of light and gloom, 
of success and defeat, of glory and shame, trace its main- 
spring, (as England to Runnymede,) to Valmy — the first vic- 
tory of the people over royal power. The great German 
poet, Goethe, was there a spectator of the battle, and he said 
to his companions: "From this place, and from this day 
forth commences a new era in the world's history, and you 
can all say that you were present at its birth." 

Waterloo, 1815 A. D. 

"Thou first and last of fields, king making victory." 

Not long after the battle of Valmy there loomed into place 
among the great soldiers of the new Republic a name that 
startled the world, a star of the first magnitude — Napoleon 
Bonaparte. We may pause before that splendid prodigy ! 
How shall we view him? Has history, in the main, done 
him justice? We know what he was and what he did, but 
what he might have been and might have accomplished, had 
he triumphed at Waterloo, we know not. He sprang from 
the people, he rose with the people, and in the name of the 
people he mounted step by step to power and to glory. His 



15 

motto was: "The good of the people and the glory of 
France." As a pennile'ss boy, too poor to live but in an 
attic at Paris, he had read the great Declaration of American 
Independence, he had followed and studied our wars of free- 
dom, their heroes and their triumphs, and had seen the 
rights of the people and the pillars of liberty engrafted and 
planted in a free Constitution, which he hoped would endure 
forever When Washington died he called upon his soldiers 
to mourn the man who had fought for liberty and equality. 
He was the dreaded apostle of Democracy throughout 
Europe, and with its symbols of power, although himself 
bearing an imperial title, he hurled his legions aj;ainst the 
hereditary thrones of the monarchs of mankind. Like a 
comet in the heavens, he attracted the gaze of the world, and 
his march was triumphant and terrible, from the Atlantic to 
the Danube and from the pyramids to Moscow. 

Marengo and Austerlitz. Jena and Auerstadt, Friedland 
and Wagram, Eylau and Borodino; yes, and Leipsic and 
Waterloo will send his name thundering down the ages, as 
the greatest genius that has appeared among civilized men. 
Had he lived and continued a ruling spirit among the nations, 
he might eventually have founded Republican governments 
on the broken thrones and Dynasties of half Europe. Such 
was the bent of his teaching and his passions. He may have 
temporarily assumed the garb of imperialism by force of ex- 
isting circumstances. At Leipsic was his first overthrow, 
where the allied powers, whom he had so often beaten, caused 
his abdication and consigned him to Elba. But the spirit of 
the mighty Corsican was not yet conquered. He soon burst 
the bounds of his island prison, landed upon France, and, 
escorted by the acclamations of the people, was marching to 
Paris; and when the congress of the allies, assembled at 
Vienna, was portioning out among themselves the territories 
rescued from his power, and replacing the petty sovereigns 
on the dukedoms he had conquered, was suddenly informed 
that the lion was bounding again to his throne, no such con- 
sternation was ever known among men, and they again flew 



16 

to arms to defend royalty and empire. The hundred days 
which succeeded were days of unrest and disquietude all over 
the continent. The people's champion was marshalling his 
hosts, and emperors, and kings, and dukes, and their de- 
pendants were concocting and concerting how and where 
they should meet their bold and wily foe. When he threw 
himself into his carriage, saying: "I go to measure myself 
with Wellington," victory seemed already to encircle his 
brow. But how vain is earthly ambition ! How soon the 
grandest career is ended ! Yet one more and the last mighty 
conflict in twenty-three years of war. Cannon to cannon, 
musket to musket, bayonet to bayonet, sword to sword, and 
dagger to dagger, amid the gleam of arms, the roar of the 
heavens, and the trembling of earth, the great drama is 
closed. The day at Waterloo seals his doom forever. Heredi- 
tary Monarchy again triumphs in Europe, and the great 
soldier, the idol of the people, is consigned to prison and to 
death on the rock of St. Helena. The allied powers again 
meet in congress, and establish themselves on their old 
thrones and dynasties, with royalty, imperialism, absolutism 
and despotism, for forty years to come. But even the ene- 
mies and traducers of the great Napoleon may admit that 
although he exercised at times quasi despotic rule, yet he 
opened the eyes of the masses"^and paved the way for what- 
ever of popular sovereignty has yet appeared in Europe since 
the dawn of his power. Thus, from Marathon to Waterloo, 
and from Alexander to Napoleon, through the scope of cen- 
turies, and the history of wars, no lasting government of 
special note has been established in the old world, declaring 
the sovereignty of the people as the emanation of all power, 
and defining just limits between the rulers and the ruled. 
Yea, we might have come down to Sedan and still the same 
pictures would be presented — monarch against monarch, em- 
peror against emperor, prince against prince — royal rule and 
dominion alone at stake ; the liberties of the people nowhere 
in the balance. 



19 

nation and violence occurred in all the cities and over the 
land. By petition and remonstrance of the colonies, the 
Stamp Act, after a time, was repealed. It was not long, 
however, before the scheme of taxation was revived, impos- 
ing duties on glass, paper, tea and other imported articles. 
Then measures were adopted by Parliament, requiring the 
colonial governments to institute proceedings against treason, 
to apprehend and transmit suspected persons, then our citi- 
zens, to England for trial. Lord North, the bitterest enemy 
of America, became the leader of the administration, and 
declared "that he would not listen to any complaints or peti- 
tions from America till she was at his feet." Then came the 
enforcement of the "Boston Port Bill," and the destruction 
of the tea in Boston Harbor. These events were the first 
specks of war, and produced serious forebodings on both 
sides of the ocean. The second General Congress assembled 
in Philadelphia, in 1774; the great men of the colonies met 
for the first time in council. Washington and Adams were 
there, and Patrick Henry and Richard Henry Lee poured 
forth their eloquence for liberty, which struck responsive 
chords in the hearts of the people. Petitions were without 
avail to a proud, overbearing and obstinate ministry. Even 
the counsels and warning of their own wise and great Chat- 
ham could not check their heedless arrogance and tyranny. 
The colonies said: "We must look back no more; we must 
conquer or die." Indeed, the war had already begun. At 
the news of the battle of Lexington, men everywhere began 
to burnish up their arms, and the note of preparation sounded 
throughout the land. On that day John Adams exclaimed 
to John Hancock: "Oh! what an ever-glorious morning is 
this." 

The British taunt: " Disperse, ye rebels ! " sent a thrill of 
indignation through the hearts of the people, and an aveng- 
ing spirit arose that would never down till freedom lived. 
"Arm! arm!" was the cry, and the tocsin was sounded from 
Massachusetts to the Carolinas and Georgia. Putnam flies 
from hamlet to hamlet, and from house to house ; and War- 



20 

ren goes to Bunker Hill to die for liberty. Marion and 
Sumter are marshalling their battallions in the South, and 
Virginia presents her young soldier to lead the eager hosts 
through the great struggle. Congress appeals to the God of 
battles for the justice of their cause, and orders fasting and 
prayer throughout the land. Washington is placed at the 
head of the army and takes command at Old Cambridge. 
Soon after the great "Declaration of Independence" is sol- 
emnly pronounced, which nerves the arms of the soldiery, 
inspires the masses with hope and victory, and rings its 
thrilling notes throughout the world. Then follow long 
years of war, of untold suffering and endurance. Trenton, 
Princeton, Brandywine and Germantown, Bennington, Sara- 
toga, Monmouth and Valley Forge, Camden, Cowpens, 
King's Mountain, Eutaw Springs, Guilford and Ninety-Six, 
and lastly, Yorktown, loom up in history and adorn the 
escutcheon of the American Revolution. The cause is won, 
liberty triumphs, and the colonies are free ! 

Saratoga, 1777. 

Having assumed in the outset that great eras of mankind 
are inaugurated by great wars, and chiefly by signal battles, 
it has been thought, and with much reason, that the battle 
of Saratoga was the turning-point of the American Revolu- 
tion. Gates and Burgoyne were there the leading chieftains. 

The British had Canada and the Lakes, had overrun the 
New England States and had advanced to the Hudson. 
Here, in the battle of Saratoga, the Americans triumphed, 
took nearly 6,000 prisoners ; and it was this victory, when 
announced in Europe, that induced France, Spain and Hol- 
land to recognize the colonies and become allies. After that 
battle the British warred against fate. It has been called the 
decisive battle ot the world. 

The definitive treaty of peace is made in Paris, September 
3, 1782, and on 18th April, 1783, eight years after the battle 
of Lexington, Washington orders cessation of hostilities. 



21 

A confederation of the States had been agreed to by the 
Congress in 1777, but was found to be deficient in many re- 
spects for a practical government over sovereign States, 
Great objections were urged, and Virginia took the first 
step, which led to the Convention of 1787 to adopt the Fed- 
eral Constitution. 

We have spoken of the cause of the American Revolu- 
tion ; we are now to speak briefly of its effect. The grand 
effect or result is the Federal Constitution — a charter 
achieved for the rights and liberties of States and peoples — 
a beacon light for the future ages of mankind. What is it? 
and what was the object of its framers ? The desire of the 
colonies was not to form a consolidation or union with un- 
limited powers; but a confederation of States, or, so to 
speak, a Republic of Republics — "e pluribus unum." 

The Revolution was fought mainly by States, each con- 
tributing men and money for a common purpose. They 
were recognized by Great Britain, France, Holland and 
Spain as free sovereign States of America. Let us see how 
the framers of the Constitution regarded the State, and so 
placed it in the Union. How did they begin the great in- 
strument? 

The State. 

" We, the people of the United States, in order to form a 
more perfect Union (more perfect than that of the Confedera- 
tion), establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide 
for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and 
secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, 
do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United 
States of America." These are significant words. 

A Constitution was to be ordained and established for the 
United States of America — States just as they had fought 
for their declared liberties, and as their independence had 
been recognized by the great powers of Europe. The States 
were to be the beneficiaries of this Constitution, by its own 
terms. Glance at its provisions : ' ' Each State shall have 



22 

at least one representative." "The Senate shall be com- 
posed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legis- 
lature thereof, for six years, and each Senator shall have one 
vote. No State shall be deprived of its equal representation 
in the Senate;" and no State shall be divided, or no other 
formed out of it without its consent. 

When the militia are called out to suppress insurrections, 
or put down rebellion, although the President is to be com- 
mander-in-chief, yet they are to be officered by the States. 

"The United States shall guarantee to every State in this 
Union a Republican form of government, and shall protect 
each of them against invasion and insurrection." 

Among the amendments before ratification were : "The 
enumeration in this Constitution of certain rights shall not 
be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the 
people." 

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the 
Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved 
to the States, respectively, or to the people." 

The States were so jealous of their rights, and so reluctant 
to concede any of them, even for a general purpose, that 
they required these amendments before they agreed to ratify 
the Constitution. 

Let it be remembered that in the Convention which formed 
and adopted the Constitution, each State had but one vote. 
The little State of Delaware had as much power as the State 
of New York or Pennsylvania. 

The ratification of nine States only were required for the 
establishment of the Constitution, and then only between the 
nine so ratifying. North Carolina stood out for two years, and 
Rhode Island for two and a half ; and they might, if they had 
so willed, stood out forever! — there was no compulsion. 

The Power of a State. 

Let us examine, for a moment, the power of a State in the 
Union. Every privilege we exercise we do it through our 
citizenship of the State, except when we are in a foreign 



23 



land or on the h,gh seas; there we are protected by tl,e fla^ 
of the Un.on and the authority it implies. The nearest we 
come to a consolidation, obstensibly at least, is by the elec- 
tion of President and Vice-President of the United States- 
and then we do not vote directly for those officers, but fo; 
electors, appomted by the States, and they elect the Presi- 
dent and Vice-President, voting according to the representa- 
tion of such State in the Congress. In this manner a Presi- 
dent and Vice-President may be elected when they have not 
receu^ed, or when the electors have not received, a majority 
of the votes of tne people. Mr. Lincoln was elected by a 
mere plurality vote, as represented by the electors 

But let us look a little further into the power of a State 
It may be when there are i^ore than two candidates for 
President, that no one has received a majority of the electors 
In that ca.se the Constitution provides that -from the ner 
sons having the highest number, not exceeding three on the' 
l.st of those voted for as President, the House of Representa 
tives shall choose immediately by ballot the President But 
m choosing the President the votes shall be taken by States 
the representatives from each State having one vote ' 

John Quincy Adams was elected by the House in 1825- 
himself. Gen I Jackson, William H. Crawford and Henry 
Clay being the candidates to choose from. Mr. Calhoun was 
at that time chosen Vice-President by the Electoral Colle<,e 
There are four States in the Union, each having but one 
representative in Congress, and in the election of a President 
by the House each one of those little States has as much 
power as the great State of New York, with thirty-four rec- 
resentatives, or Pennsylvania, with twenty-eight. There are 
l-tyeigt States in the Union, and twenty,^ei„g a majo 
ity. can elect a President. You can select twenty State 
which have but seventy-eight representatives, and yet they 
can defeat all the others combined, which have two l>und ed 
and forty-seven^ The nine States, New York, Pennsylvam^ 
Ohio^ Illinois, Indiana, Missouri. Massachusetts, Kentucky 
and Tennessee alone have one hundred and sixty-three-a 



24 

majority of the whole three hundred and twenty-five — yet 
the twenty States, represented by only seventy-eight mem- 
bers, can elect the President. 

New York and Pennsylvania alone have sixty-two repre- 
sentatives. 

Thus it is seen what a power a State may be in the elec- 
tion of a President. 

Turn to the Senate and the disparity is still greater, the 
power of a State more distinctly manifest. The Constitution 
provides that when a candidate for Vice-President has not 
received a majority of all the votes in the Electoral College, 
"then from the two highest on the list the Senate shall 
choose the Vice-President; and a majority of the whole num- 
ber of Senators shall be necessary to a choice." Each of the 
four little States of Colorado, Delaware, Nevada and Oregon, 
with but one representative in the House, has two Senators, 
and just as many votes as the great State of New York, with 
its thirty-four representatives, and a population nearly nine 
times as large as all four together; and in the election of 
Vice-President they have eight votes while New York has 
but two votes — so that a Vice-President may be elected (who 
indeed may become the President) by a majority of Sena- 
tors, who do not represent, numerically, one-third of the 
population of the Union. 

The Constitution itself may be changed or amended by a 
minority of the people acting through States. 

It provides that "the Congress, whenever two-thirds of 
both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amend- 
ments to this Constitution ; or, on the application of the leg- 
islatures of two-thirds of the several States, shall call a con- 
vention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, 
shall be valid, to all intents and purposes, as part of this 
Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths 
of the several States, or by conventions in three-fourths 
thereof, as one or the other mode of ratification may be pro- 
posed by the Congress." Now you may select two-thirds of 
the States, which have but one hundred and twenty-four rep- 



25 

resentatives out of the total number of three hundred and 
twenty-five— a little over one-third necessary for proposals — 
and you may select three-fourths of the States necessary for 
ratification, which have but one hundred and forty-five rep- 
resentatives, less than half, who do not represent near one- 
half of the entire population. See the colossal power of the 
State in the Union. 

Thus it follows that the framers of this Constitution had 
an eye single to the State. They made it the pivotal point 
of the complex machinery, or, so to speak, the axis on 
which the confederate or federal globe was to revolve. 

In the construction of an instrument, will, deed, compact 
or contract, Lord Coke says the intention of the makers is 
the polar star. Our system of government was made for 
constituted minorities, to protect the weak against the strong, 
to uphold the smaller States against the masses that might 
crowd the larger. It is founded upon a compact but little 
understood by the people at large, and too little studied by 
those even who are called constitutional lawyers. 

Let the young men of our country, who expect to con- 
duct its affairs, take the Constitution as their "Vade Mecum ;" 
and the more they scrutinize its provisions and ascertain its 
intent, the more firmly they will adopt the theory of Jeffer- 
son, "the support of the State governments, in all their rights, 
as the most competent administrations for our domestic con- 
cerns, and the surest bulwarks against anti- Republican ten- 
dencies," as well as "the preservation of the general Govern- 
ment, in its whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet anchor of 
our peace at home and safety abroad." 

First, take care of the State and the safety of the Union 
will be assured as the necessary result. The Father of his / 
Country said, in his farewell address, " Toward the preser- \ 
vation of your government and the permanency of your 
present happy state, it is requisite not only that you steadily 
discountenance irregular opposition to its acknowledged au- 
thority, but, also, that you resist with care the spirit of inno- 
vation upon its principles however specious its pretext." 



26 

Jackson said : " Nor is our government to be maintained, 
or our Union preserved, by invasion of the rights and powers 
of the several States. In thus attempting to make our gen- 
eral government strong we make it weak. Its true strength 
consists in leaving individuals and States, as much as possi- 
ble, to themselves ; in making itself felt, not in its power, but 
in its beneficence, not in its control but in its protection, 
not in binding the States more closely to the centre but in 
leaving each to move unobstructed in its proper orbit." 

Let those who would ignore the rights of the States preach 
and prate as they may, this Constitution, in its real essence, 
is, and will be, the guide of all who would uphold free gov- 
ernment in our own land and throughout the world. It has 
inspired the hearts and strengthened the minds of indepen- 
dent thinkers in all Christendom. It has thundered at the 
thrones of monarchy and despotism throughout civilization, 
and it will continue to thunder there as long as free thought 
shall exist among mankind. Like the water that springs 
from the vertical mountain, though it may burrow and trickle 
in subterranean channels, yet at length with proper guidance 
will rise to its level, so the highest emanations of intellect 
though oft submerged, will never die, but eventually assert 
their supremacy as controlling agencies in the affairs of men. 
The immediate material offspring of this Constitution is our 
own grand country, a mighty Republic of sovereign States, 
comprising an extent of land, lake and river, and a variety 
of climate, both for the enjoyment and utility of man, no- 
where else to be found ; lying between the two great oceans 
of the world, with five thousand miles of seacoast, bearing a 
population already of more than fifty millions, with room for 
hundreds of millions more, with a soil to produce the varied 
material for all the uses of man, with industrial economies and 
a genius and enterprise that celebrate our people among all 
nations. They look to us with longing eyes, and they come 
from distant lands, and from the isles of the sea, to this haven 
of rich granaries, of vigorous, mental and physical health, 
and for peaceful rest under free government. Let us guard 



27 

with constant watch this charter of liberty, and preserve it 
even as a divine benediction. 

Washington. 

Lastly, may we not ask to what individual influence can 
we ascribe such a benign consummation ? Truly there is a 
Divinity that rules amongst men and raises up instruments to 
execute great purposes. This day's celebration by the 
American people wherever they may be, on land or sea, 
speaks the name of their great benefactor. 

" How shall we rank thee upon glory's page, 
Thou more than soldier and just less than sage ? 
All thou has been reflects less fame on thee, 
Far less than all thou hast forborne to be." 

Thousands of tongues have exhausted their eloquence in 
his praise, and eulogy itself stands awed before his match- 
less presence. It needs but to epitomize his fame. View 
him from the cradle to the grave. At the domestic hearth, 
a watchful and dutiful son ; at the school, an eager and in- 
dustrious pupil ; in the early pioneer wars, a brave and gal- 
lant soldier, wiser than his superiors, and more wily than the 
wily Indian, from whose guns and arrows he was, as they 
thought, protected by a shield of the mighty Manitou — the 
Indian's God. 

See him in the Virginia House of Burgesses, an earnest pat- 
riot and wise counselor; in the Continental Congress, the 
calmest, most modest, yet firmest of all ; at the head of the 
army of the revolution, through all the dangers and sufferings 
of years, the weary days and nights, the watching and fast- 
ing, the winter's snow and the summer's heat ; and in battle, 
how calm, how brave, how wise, how grand. His compre- 
hensive mind grasped the condition everywhere, and in the 
struggles of his armies, he was an omnipresence ; in courage 
and skill, great as Alexander, Caesar, or Napoleon ; and in 
the virtue and wisdom to found an empire greater than all. 

See him as President of the Constitutional Convention, 
where the utmost wisdom was necessary to sum up and com- 



28 

plete the great end of the long and arduous struggle ; see 
him as chief of the great Republic he had reared, twice hon- 
ored, the culminating homage of a Nation's gratitude. Then 
see him after his public service ends, on the banks of his 
loved Potomac, with the same patience and fidelity to duty, 
leading the life of an honest, patriot farmer. And then, at 
the last summons, although sudden and unexpected, life's 
labors over, yet ready, as he had always been at the call of his 
country, he renders up his life. His great soul ascends like 
an exhalation in the evening to the abode of the blessed. Can 
the American youth scan the history of their country in its 
struggle for liberty and the rights of man, without beholding 
on every page this august and majestic image, this ever- 
enduring and glorious example ? 

" Where may the wearied eye repose 

When gazing on the great, 
Where neither guilty glory glows 

Nor despicable state ? 
Yes, one — the first, the last, the best. 
The Cincinnatus of the West, 

Whom envy dared not hate — 
Bequeathed the name of Washington, 
To make men blush there was but one ! " 






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